aerinea_faerie

Theophilus Carter, my tiny Mad hatter doll, got a cute little Steampunk outfit today. It's super cute.

( Pictures here )

We finally got our Comic-Con pictures up! Between the two of us, we got over 300 photos, most of them having been taken by my husband.

http://www.mobenloft.com/pictures.asp?pictureID=107

Steampunk Gallery:
http://www.mobenloft.com/subpictures.asp?subPictureID=160

My doll pictures are here:
http://www.mobenloft.com/subpictures.asp?subPictureID=158

My daughter was at her great-aunt's on Saturday, allowing Chris and I to work on the Wimshurst machine. Chris was going to be boring out some holes in the cut-down staircase balusters so the fiberglass axles would have somewhere to sit. There was only one problem; his drill bit set didn't have a bit of the right diameter to make the holes. We needed to go out to get a new bit.

( More below )

I finished Klara's clothes, and I now have pictures.

( Pictures Below )

An entire week before I expected them, my pair of tiny pilot hats with goggles arrived. My dolls are wearing their goggles, and Chris is talking about borrowing one of the caps and goggles for Evelyn's monkey backpack the next time we wear Steampunk costumes with her. He likes to dress her backpack up.

Sometimes I forget that things that come form Korea tend to arrive on my coast first.

In other doll news, I *might* be getting a third doll this year. Maybe. The company that makes the two dolls I already have has a offshoot line that has the size a little odd, but works as young/early puberty sized against 60cm dolls. One of them has a face sculpt that reminds me so much of my boy doll, that I can't help but think of her as a potential "younger sister" doll. I don't need, that doll, but it would be nice.

I'm thinking I might see about pictures later.

We were able to acquire most of the parts for the Wimshurst, but there are still a few little fiddly bits we need to finish assembling it. Once I find them, I will be very happy indeed.

Despite not having everything, I have spent the last two days working on it to the best of my ability. I have spent a lot of time with my new friends the miter box and the hacksaw. I have almost everything that needs cutting cut to appropriate lengths, but ran out of brass rod and I still need to cut the brass tube. I have fabricated my Leyden jars, but I'm thinking about redoing the foil on them. I think I can make them look better. I also have painted up the base before taking the time to fabricate it.

Chris has been taking pictures. He decided that me going outside wearing safety goggles on my forehead and carrying a hacksaw was a little scary, but this needed to be recorded. He's also been doing the soldering so far and has decided that we're going to need a torch to finish the job. I agree.

This has been costing a lot more money than Jake von Slatt had mentioned, but he probably figured that anyone with a subscription to Make: likely already had all of the tools and some of the parts just laying around. We didn't, and some of these tools were a little expensive, but they'll be useful. I doubt this will be my only project that requires lots of cutting and welding.

I've already been frustrated by parts of this project, but it feels good to accomplish parts of it. I'm enjoying myself.

One of the things I have learned about the whole Super Dollfie/Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls thing is that the companies encourage as much uniqueness in the dolls as possible. This is implemented via a manufactured scarcity to rival the Beanie Baby craze. Add to that the fact that some companies that manufacture things for these dolls cater almost exclusively to the markets in Asia, sometimes procuring things can be difficult.

For example, one of the three companies I do most of my purchasing from, Luts, got a license to distribute some pilot caps with aviation goggles. The first thing I thought when I saw them was "Ooh, I could use those goggles in Steampunk costumes for my dolls." They sold out very quickly before I could order any, so I went through the trouble of finding the actual manufacturer. They are Korean, and although they claim to do overseas orders, it is nearly impossible to navigate the site without knowing Korean. You certainly can't fill out the order form without knowing Korean.

I had nearly given up on getting the pilot caps when I discovered, just today, that Luts was able to restock them. I called Chris immediately, and had a very short conversation I was given permission to order them. I spent $50.00 on hats where I just wanted the goggles. Goggles for dolls.

Ever since I saw it at Steam Powered, I have coveted Jake von Slatt's Wimshurst machine. Recently, the issue of Make: with the directions and parts arrived. Starting yesterday, I started collecting parts. We now have most of them; we're just needing a few more fiddly bits to make electrodes with, some very specific screws, and a whole lot of washers. Oh, and the polycarbonate for the discs, but we know what we'll be doing about that. Possibly on Wednesday, more likely on Thursday, we'll be going to Tap Plastics and getting the polycarbonate. The rest of it is just the two of us finding everything else. Chris will likely be going to a hardware store on his lunch break to get screws and washers, I will be looking for the lamp parts.

We have discovered that I am not to talk to salespeople about projects. I confuse them. I can ask for specific parts, but when they ask me what it is for, I need to clam up. Chris has an easier time talking with people. Granted, Eco Dave was able to understand the project just fine, but Chris found him first.

I'm glad we're finally making this thing.

So, this is an opinion piece about the mainstreaming of Steampunk fashion and how it relates to other subcultures that had aspects of their fashion co-opted by mainstream society.

( Read More )

Last night while most people of the geeky persuasion were going to see Watchmen, Chris and I went to the Berkeley Opera's Steampunk themed production of Tales of Hoffmann. We, of course, dressed for the occasion because I am one of those people who seriously thinks that going to an opera is an occasion where you dress up. I knew that I would be dressier than most of the patrons, but was pleasantly surprised that I only saw a few people wearing jeans.

Opera is serious business.

For those who don't know, Tales of Hoffmann is Offenbach's final opera and was left uncompleted at his time of death, so productions can be radically different as the director pieces together what he can. It is a fictionalised story about the poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, the German Romantic author who wrote the stories that inspired ballets like The Nutcracker and Coppelia. The opera takes place in Nuremberg and starts with the Muse of poetry angrily declaring that Hoffmann has fallen in love and that she will need to steal him away from this real woman, a singer named Stella who is appearing in Mozart's Don Giovanni to get him back to writing. She devises a plan to give him dreams and takes the guise of Hoffmann's friend.

The next night, we meet up with everyone at a tavern, and Hoffmann finds himself telling everyone the stories of his three loves. These tales are the bulk of the opera. The first is about Olympia, the doll, and is based on his story Der Sandmann. Der Sandmann is also the inspiration for the ballet Coppelia It is the most comical of the three acts. The second is the tale of Antonia, the singer and artist. That story is based on Rath Krespel. The third is the tale of Giulietta, the whore. It is based on Das verlorene Spiegelbild or A New Year's Eve Adventure and is bizarrely fairytale-like despite being about a courtesan in Venice. The ending is bittersweet, with the revelation that the girl in each tale is an aspect of Stella, who Hoffmann now rejects. He then turns his sorrow toward writing, now belonging to the Muse.

As I said earlier, Offenbach never finished the opera. The production I saw used a new libretto written in English for the Berkeley Opera. The author of the libretto did what he could to do more than translate it from French (Yes, the opera is about a German and is set in Germany, but is in French. That's opera for you.), as he decided to actually read the stories each act was based upon in order to incorporate as much of Hoffmann's original tales as possible into the libretto. He also put in some jokes that worked very well in today's clime, the one I remember best worked in the context of the play but referenced our current financial crisis.

The costuming was wonderful, although it fell prey to the "Goggles for everyone!" school of Steampunk a bit too heavily in places. They also used more metallic fabric in the costumes than I have ever seen at a Steampunk event. The set was wonderful and had lots of lovely gear-shaped bits of wood stuck to it. I both wanted and wanted to disassemble the bar used in the scenes. But, of course, the best thing was the singing. We had seats right near the orchestra pit; practically the front row. The singing was lovely, and the librettist for this production did everything in his power to use Offenbach's original score. It being incomplete resulted in other composers filling out bits here and there. The result was lovely, especially in such an intimate venue as the Julia Morgan Theatre.

I think I will be keeping an eye on the Berkeley Opera. And those of you who know me in real life, perhaps sometime we can all go to the opera together.

Okay, who thinks this works for me?

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Gadgeteer

21% Elegant, 86% Technological, 20% Historical, 20% Adventurous and 40% Playful!

Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy

Like my title says, things don't always go as planned. Tomorrow is the beginning of Wonder Con, and nothing that I was hoping would be put together by now is going to happen. Although I plan to dress up both Saturday and Sunday, I do not have anything new to wear to the convention. Plans for a day where I have Jaegers to command fell through. It looks like it will just be a regular convention. At least I have more tools to wear when I'm dressed as Agatha, and now I have a nice gold pocketwatch.

On the other hand, the Steampunk issue of Make arrived today, so I'll soon be gathering parts for my Whimshurst machine. I'll be able to have the buttons all the same on one of my outfits instead of the cheat I did to make it look good. And I already have tickets to see Abney Park in March. So there are good things.

Na ja, it balances I guess.

Yes, I have been a quite one lately. I really can't think much of what I want to write.

Let's see...
mobenloft and I are talking about trying to make the Edwardian Ball at least when Abney Park are playing because they were so much fun at Steam Powered.

I am trying to collect the pattern pieces I need to make a natural-form era bustle dress. I plan to use the base patterns for a few variations, but not all of the planned ones may get made. One for a Christmassy one for winter Gaskells, one for a general use, and one that looks like the dress Agatha was sewn into in Sturmhalten before The Other was beamed into her head.

Evelyn is showing signs that she may be starting to read. Actually read, not just memorising her books.

Got a subscription to Make Magazine. Plan on doing some building soon. Muahaha!

I think that's it for now.

I haven't really taken the time to organise my thoughts from Steam Powered, but at least we have the pictures up. We have whole, new costumes that I made, some great pics of the Foglios (all of them), and a very cool machine made by Jake Von Slatt that I really want one of and plan to build.

I really enjoyed riding in the bus to see Abney Park with Phil and Kaja, and also had fun sitting next to them during the show.

Oh, yeah, a link to pictures.
Pictures!

It's the Monday after Steam Powered, and I am so tired. I have wonderful stories of getting to see Abney Park with Kaja and Phil Foglio, getting pestered about Dickens, PEERs, and other dance events, and cool looking crafted stuff. But I want to organise my thoughts first, and let myself wake up a bit.

So, Convention report coming!

It seems that the Folsom Renaissance Faire is the one that gets all the Steampunk talk in the guildyard. Last year at it, an upcoming Steampunk party caught my ear when they mentioned wanting an Agatha at the party led to my revealing of the Agatha costume I was already working on. This year, one of my guildmates told me that she is working on a Mama Gkika costume. She hopes to have it done by Wonder Con, which will be very cool.

Currently, I am working on second costumes for the Steampunk convention coming up. I'm almost done, seeing as I gave myself a month to work on things instead of a week. I hope to have no last-minute sewing and buttons held on with safety pins this time.

The new goggles arrived today! They have a much sturdier construction than before, the leather is stiffer, which means they won't slide around so much on my hat when I wear them. I miss my old pair, but these are so nice that I don't mind having given them up.

Next time I wear my Agatha costume, they will be right with it.